World treaty near to control tobacco
February 17 2003
By Alison Langley
Zurich
World Health Organisation delegates from 191 countries gathered in Geneva
at the weekend to work on the final text of a treaty to control tobacco.
The treaty, the result of four years of intense negotiations, is intended
to limit tobacco advertising, impose high taxes and insist that tobacco
companies be held liable for their products. Tobacco companies will also be
obliged to divulge all the ingredients in their products and to print
warning labels that cover at least 30 per cent of the package. The treaty
will encourage countries to enact strict measures promoting clean indoor air.
But the initiative is unlikely to finance tobacco control programs in poor
countries, a point of contention still to be ironed out.
About 4.9 million people die each year from tobacco use, according to WHO.
The toll is expected to double in 20 years, with nearly all the additional
deaths projected in developing countries.
Luis Felipe de Seixas Correa, the ambassador to the United Nations from
Brazil, the world's largest tobacco producer, will preside over the
negotiating sessions. He argues the countries that need the most help are
the ones least able to pay for the measures about to be passed.
Delegates from 32 African countries last week called on the negotiating
body to give money to developing countries dependent on tobacco to help
them switch to other crops.
Countries such as the United States, Germany and Japan, whose Finance
Ministry owns 67 per cent of a tobacco company, have opposed language in
the treaty that would mandate such financing.
http://theage.com.au/articles/2003/02/16/1045330465664.html
